April Foolishness

This past weekend, I went to Washington DC, home to clean public transportation, Greco-Roman-inspired monuments, and some guy named Barack. I love the place like The Count of Monte Cristo loved Haydee, should anything happen to my dear Mercedes (a.k.a. NYC). I did a fair amount of education-related stuff there, first visiting the Jefferson Memorial, and then the FDR Memorial. Enthralled by it all, it got me to thinking a little more about how children learn and the difference between different types of parents.

For instance, as I washed my hands in the lavatory, a father took his daughter to the bathroom:

As I giggled at her premature jokes, I also noticed that, in proof, that was a rather astute observation. How often do we take that which is presented to us and make it mundane? Isn’t it also interesting how we take things that we find in nature and replicate them into something compact and portable? Isn’t it also interesting that the people most keen on looking at these seemingly ordinary things happen to be the people least exposed to everything i.e. children?

Lesson learned: listen and encourage more than filtering and discouraging. Even if it is about a pee pee waterfall.

The Hottest Posts Of The Week

Follow Me

About Me

José Luis Vilson is a math educator, blogger, speaker, and activist in New York City, NY. He has written and spoken about education, math, and race for a number of organizations and publications, including The New York Times, Education Week, The Guardian, Al Jazeera America, Huffington Post, Edutopia, GOOD, and El Diario / La Prensa, NY. For more, click here.

More About Me

José Luis Vilson is a math educator, blogger, speaker, activist, and author of This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education. He has written and spoken about education, math, and race for a number of organizations and publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, CNN, Edutopia, and others.

This Is Not A Test

One of the most critically acclaimed education books of 2014 is now available via Haymarket Books or wherever books are sold. Go get yours today!

Sign Up

Join the hundreds who get the freshest content from TheJoseVilson.com right to your inbox right on time. Without worrying if your school district blocked my site. Sign up now.